Fatty Acid Methyl Ester (FAME) produced from biomass offers several advantages such as renewability and sustainability. The typical production process of FAME is accompanied by various impurities such as alcohol, soap, glycerol, and the spent catalyst. Therefore, the most challenging part of the FAME production is the purification process. In this work, a novel application of bulk liquid membrane (BLM) developed from conventional solvent extraction methods was investigated for the removal of glycerol from FAME. The extraction and stripping processes are combined into a single system, allowing for simultaneous solvent recovery whereby low-cost quaternary ammonium salt-glycerol-based deep eutectic solvent (DES) is used as the membrane phase. Moreover, for the first time, diethyl ether was introduced as a strip phase to strip the free glycerol in the BLM system. The effects of DES composition, DES …
With the development of computer architecture and its technologies in recent years, applications like e-commerce, e-government, e-governance and e-finance are widely used, and they act as active research areas. In addition, in order to increase the quality and quantity of the ordinary everyday transactions, it is desired to migrate from the paper-based environment to a digital-based computerized environment. Such migration increases efficiency, saves time, eliminates paperwork, increases safety and reduces the cost in an organization. Digital signatures are playing an essential role in many electronic and automatic based systems and facilitate this migration. The digital signatures are used to provide many services and s
... Show MoreThe work demonstrates the effect of cold atmospheric plasma (CAP) on adult female rats suffering from osteoporosis, the used plasma was generated by a floating electrode-dielectric barrier discharge system with an electrode diameter of 3 cm. The output power was from (12-20) watts. The effect of non-thermal plasma was observed on rats with various exposure times of 20, 30, and 40 sec. It was noted that the blood calcium percentage of animals exposed to cold plasma increased, as well as an increase in the level of vitamin D3 at the same time, it is noted that there is no effect on parathyroid hormone level. For the thyroid gland, it is noticed an increase in the level of T3, and T4 hormones in the blood during the period of induction for
... Show MoreBanking reforms in many countries have focused on the efficiency enhance of the banking sector, including Iraq, in terms of indicative steps based on recommendations, policies and standards developed by international organizations, foremost of which are Basel III. In this paper, it has tried to highlight the reforms in Basel III and the impact of these reforms on the stability of the banking system in Iraq. As the research derives its importance from the idea that the sound banking system consists of a group of banks capable of employing their assets and obligations efficiently in financial intermediation and enjoying financial solvency. The stability of the banking system is an important factor in achieving the leading role of t
... Show MoreFace Identification system is an active research area in these years. However, the accuracy and its dependency in real life systems are still questionable. Earlier research in face identification systems demonstrated that LBP based face recognition systems are preferred than others and give adequate accuracy. It is robust against illumination changes and considered as a high-speed algorithm. Performance metrics for such systems are calculated from time delay and accuracy. This paper introduces an improved face recognition system that is build using C++ programming language with the help of OpenCV library. Accuracy can be increased if a filter or combinations of filters are applied to the images. The accuracy increases from 95.5% (without ap
... Show MoreNystatin is the drug of choice for treatment of cutaneous fungal infections with main disadvantage that is the need for multiple applications to achieve complete eradication which may reduce patient compliance. Microparticles offer a solution for such issue as they are one of sustained release preparations that achieve slow release of drug over an extended period of time. The objectives of this study were to fabricate nystatin-loaded chitosan microparticles with the ultimate goal of prolonging drug release and to analyze the influence of polymer concentration on various properties of microparticles. Microparticles were prepared by chemical cross-linking method using glutaraldehyde as cross-linking agent. Five formulas, namely N1C1, N1C2,
... Show MoreAutonomous systems are these systems which power themselves from the available ambient energies in addition to their duties. In the next few years, autonomous systems will pervade society and they will find their ways into different applications related to health, security, comfort and entertainment. Piezoelectric harvesters are possible energy converters which can be used to convert the available ambient vibration energy into electrical energy. In this contribution, an energy harvesting cantilever array with magnetic tuning including three piezoelectric bimorphs is investigated theoretically and experimentally. Other than harvester designs proposed before, this array is easy to manufacture and insensitive to manufacturi
... Show MoreRating systems for evaluating the sustainability of communities are an essential tool that is increasingly applied throughout the developed world to set criteria indicators to optimize the physical, social, economic, and environmental potential within such communities. Rating systems vary based on existing disparities among societies and their unique building and physical planning practices. Iraqi cities lacked the adaptation of a formal methodology or sustainability rating system to correctly measure the built environment’s sustainability indicators. This research attempts to review the most substantial rating systems to measure the sustainability of communities worldwide to form a
In this study, the response and behavior of machine foundations resting on dry and saturated sand was investigated experimentally. In order to investigate the response of soil and footing to steady state dynamic loading, a physical model was manufactured to simulate steady state harmonic load at different operating frequencies. Total of 84 physical models were performed. The footing parameters are related to the size of the rectangular footing and depth of embedment. Two sizes of rectangular steel model footing were tested at the surface and at 50 mm depth below model surface. Meanwhile the investigated parameters of the soil condition include dry and saturated sand for two relative densities 30% and 80%. The response of the footing was ela
... Show MoreThere are still areas around the world suffer from severe shortage of freshwater supplies. Desalination technologies are not widely used due to their high energy usage, cost, and environmental damaging effects. In this study, a mathematical model of single-bed adsorption desalination system using silica gel-water as working pair is developed and validated via earlier experiments. A very good match between the model predictions and the experimental results is recorded. The objective is to reveal the factors affecting the productivity of fresh water and cooling effect in the solar adsorption system. The proposed model is setup for solving within the commercially-available software (Engineering Equation Solver). It is implemented to so
... Show MoreSolar energy is one of the immeasurable renewable energy in power generation for a green, clean and healthier environment. The silicon-layer solar panels absorb sun energy and converts it into electricity by off-grid inverter. Electricity is transferred either from this inverter or from transformer, consumed by consumption unit(s) available for residential or economic purposes. The artificial neural network is the foundation of artificial intelligence and solves many complex problems which are difficult by statistical methods or by humans. In view of this, the purpose of this work is to assess the performance of the Solar - Transformer - Consumption (STC) system. The system may be in complete breakdown situation due to failure of both so
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